Fairfax sells down TradeMe shares

Fairfax CEO Greg Hywood. TradeMe has long been considered as a potential divestment for Fairfax, which until Sunday held a 66 per cent stake in the company worth $720 million. Photo: Peter Rae

Sarah Thompson

Fairfax Media, the publisher of The Australian Financial Review, has sold a block of shares in Kiwi online auction house TradeMe totalling about 15 per cent of the company.

TradeMe is in a trading halt in New Zealand pending an announcement to the NZ Stock Exchange. The shares were offered at $2.70 apiece and UBS executed the deal on Sunday. The sale, to a small group of investors, is worth about $160 million.

TradeMe has long been considered as a potential divestment for Fairfax, which until Sunday held a 66 per cent stake in the company worth $720 million.

Fairfax shares closed on Friday at a historically low price of 60.5¢ and at least one shareholder has said the valuation makes the company “vulnerable” to a break-up. Speculation is also rife that the company could cull 150 journalists in its metro division.

Rival publisher News Ltd is also believed to be headed for a major round of redundancies, with as many as 1000 jobs on the line.